“Est quoddam prodire tenus si non datur ultra."

HEC

HORACE.

JAMAICA:

PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF TAX KINGSTON

CHRONICLE.

PREFACE.

In submitting the following Theory of Physical Astronomy to the World, the Author cannot refrain from expressing a hope that, even should it be found to possess but little intrinsic merit, yet, if he shall have succeeded in showing that the existing doctrine upon this subject has its fallacies, it may not be considered that his labour has been bestowed in vain.

INTRODUCTION.

THE

HE Works of the Omnipotent have, from the earliest ages of the world, excited astonishment and awe, and, at the same time, a desire in mankind to search into the causes that could produce such wonders.

In the barbarous ages mankind were overwhelmed with what they could not comprehend, yet, conscious of something superior to themselves, to which all things owed their exist ence, kneeled down and worshipped God in his works. No savage nation has ever been discovered which has not betrayed a similar conviction, of which a more striking instance cannot be adduced than the nations of Indians in America.

In what glaring colours then does not this paint the folly of those of the present day who, with all the advantages of the effulgent light which has been thrown upon the certainty of the existence of a Supreme Being, from the